Unsung Heroes of Love
by Lord Shade
Summary: Many people don't know that Appa and Momo are both hopeless romantics, and if it wasn't for their meddling, many members of the Gaang would be single, heartbroken, or with the wrong person. A series of drabbles about two unsung heroes of love.
1. Lost Tales

**Lost Tales **

For hundreds of years, the world would read stories of the adventures of Avatar Aang and his journey to end the Great War. Poems, stories, and textbooks would chronicle his life before and after the War, which marked a turning point in the life world. Aang would be celebrated in history as the catalyst for an almost endless time of peace and harmony. The exploits of Aang, Sokka, Katara, Toph, and Zuko would forever be acknowledged in museums, be the source on enormous memorials, and used to lull restless children to bed. Throughout history, they would be hailed as some of the greatest heroes in the world.

However, history would fail to recognize the exploits of two of the legendary Gaang's most crucial members: Appa and Momo.

Appa and Momo would forever more be unsung heroes of the world, remembered only as the Avatar's pets

Except among the lemur and air bison population. In the last hundred years, the population had grown considerably, no longer making these majestic sky beasts extinct.

They are the only creatures in the whole world to tell the lost tales of Appa the Mighty and Momo the Brave. The chirps, growls, hisses, and bellows of these animals were really conversation in which the beasts would acknowledge Appa's and Momo's contributions to the world. It wasn't until another Avatar was able to make a spiritual link with a lemur and hear these stories that the human race learned about their greatness.

These are their tales.


	2. Just Shut Up

**Just Shut Up**

The fighting was starting to get annoying.

Like, _really_ annoying. Momo didn't know how much more he could take. You couldn't even take a decent nap around here anymore.

But as exasperating as the yelling was, no one was willing to do anything about it. Every human in the traveling party was content to just let the waterbender and their new firebending companion scream at each other all day long. It was like they were deaf to the insults and swearing.

Were all the humans completely blind to the fact that he and Appa were completely sleep deprived? What could they possibly be doing that was more important than daily naps? It's not like they were saving the world or anything. Not with all the excess angst they were carrying around. Sure these humans were impressive with their bending and all, but they didn't even have tails. Seriously, how can you be expected to do anything heroic and _not_ have a tail? These kids couldn't even save a cabbage. Literally.

Lucky, they have their good friend Momo to watch out for them. He shudders to think where they would be without him.

So it seems that yet _again_ it was up to Momo to bring peace to the group and save these kids from themselves. Couldn't they do anything for themselves?

It wasn't all that hard to figure out the source of the yelling. He just had to follow the screaming.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn't the smoky-smelling two-legger that was the cause for all the aggression. It was the female that smelled like water. The scarred boy would just be standing there, performing some helpful chore or accomodating task, and she would walk up to him, aggression etched into every movement and without any provocation whatsoever, begin to insult and accuse the boy. At first he accepted her harsh words without resistance, an even bigger shock to the lemur, who remembers a time when this two-legger was the very definition of anger.

But you can only take so much unjustified hostility for so long before you snap. And boy did he _snap_.

Now they argued at even the sight of each other.

It was a daily ritual. She would curse and accuse then he would retort and insult.

But at the end of every fight, as they walked away, no longer able to take the sight of each other anymore, they would get this look on their face. Momo didn't really know what it was. It looked to be a mixture of anger and…regret?

Yes, that's what it was. Regret.

If these young two-leggers really did have regrets at the end of every fight, there might be some hope for them yet.

But the problem wasn't really who started the fights, which was usually the female, it was the one who added the fuel to the fire, no pun intended, which was the smoky-smelly male.

So all he had to did was make sure that Zuko didn't make things worse.

Momo had his work cut out for him.

But Momo was nothing if not resourceful. He'd know what to do when the moment presented itself.

"What do you think you're doing?" Like right now.

"What's it look like? I'm making dinner." There was an edge to his tone of voice.

"Since when did banished Princes know when to cook?" Oh, she was getting ready to let him have it.

Wisely, he did not respond. Maybe this human had more intelligence than Momo gave him credit for.

"So what are you making? Soup made from the bones of defenseless families? I heard that's a Fire Nation delicacy."

"No. It's beef jerky stew. But the bone soup does sound better than that trash you made last night. Or has the taste of sea prunes completely ruined your taste buds?"

Maybe not.

"Hey, I got an idea. Why don't you go back to the Fire Nation and eat all the fancy food that you want. Oh wait, you can't. You're banished. They don't want you around any more that the I do."

That seemed to have struck a nerve, because an expression of genuine hurt drifted across Zuko's face. But that was soon replaced with pure hate.

Momo could tell that this would be the fight to end all fights. He had to do something now, before either one did something they would later regret.

Katara turned her back to the Fire Prince, but not walking away, waiting for Zuko's response.

Zuko was more than happy to oblige. He opened his mouth ready to unleash a string of swears and curses at the girl.

But he never got the chance. Because at that moment, Momo leapt from his hiding place and jumped on Zuko's face, effectively cutting him off .

Zuko tried to yell, but all that came out was a kind of muffled whisper. Zuko couldn't see, speak or even breath. He started to flail around trying to get the stupid animal off his face. He pulled, he pushed, and he even punched, but the lemur would not let go. Momo was hugging the firebender's head with a death grip.

A lemur on his face, spinning around in circles, floundering around like an idiot, Zuko must have been quite the sight.

But the only person in the room was Katara, and she had her back to him, completely unaware of the spectacle behind her. It was obvious that she was still waiting for Zuko's retort so she would have a reason to freeze his butt to the floor.

But there was no angry reply.

In those moments, the influence of what Katara said seemed to have backfired on her. Her expression had darkened with regret.

Her back still to the suffocating fire prince, she said "I didn't mean for it to come out that way."

Zuko was too busy trying to breathe to hear what she said.

"I know you've given up a lot to help us. And that I'm the only one in the entire group who hasn't accepted that you've changed."

Zuko's face was turning blue under Momo's belly.

"Even Sokka's talked to me about getting along with you. But it's hard to look at you and not remember all the bad thing's that you and the Fire Nation have done."

Zuko felt dizzy and his thrashing turned sluggish and uncoordinated.

"Aang tells me that you've changed. That you really are a different person. He says that my anger is clouding my judgement, stopping me from seeing the new you. Maybe it is."

Zuko was deathly pale and about 5 seconds from passing out. And about 10 seconds from actually dying.

Having face down generals, angry earthbenders, and an insane Azula, there was no way in hell that Zuko was going to die like this. In a kitchen suffocated by a _lemur._ This is not how was going out.

"I want to believe that you've changed, but it'll take time…"

Zuko used what energy he had left to light a small flame in his hand. He raised it to his face, hoping to burn the animal off. Desprate times…

Unfortanetly, Momo saw the flame coming and jumped off Zuko's head just before the flame made contact. Zuko ended up burning himself.

Finally being able to breathe, he took in a huge breathe and color returned to his face. The burn on his head really hurt.

Zuko was still gasping for breathe when Katara finally turned around.

"I'll make you a deal; if you promise not to be a jerk, I'll promise to be more civil."

Just now realizing that Katara was in the room, staring at him with big, blue and expectant eyes, the confused Zuko just said the first thing that came to mind.

"Uhmm…okay…?"

"Great. See you at dinner Zuko," she said and walked away.

She didn't smile, but there was definitely a brightness to her face that wasn't there before.

Zuko was thoroughly confused.

He directed his gaze to the lemur that had almost been the death of him.

"What the hell was that about? I thought she hated me and you like me. Now _you're_ trying to kill me and _Katara's_ being nice? If you come near me again, I swear _you'll_ be our next dinner."

Momo gave him an irate look.

_The things I do for these kids…_

* * *

Momo is greatly underappreciated.

Couldn't you just see Zuko flailing around with Momo on his face? Tell me that's no hilarious.

I want to sincerely apologize to every single person that has ever read this story and put it on alert. There really is not excuse for the enormously long time between updates. But my sister's having a baby-mazletoff!- and my home life has been kinda hectic for a while. Well, to make up for it, I'm gonna start adding some chapters. The next one's gonna be a Taang. So if you're looking forward to more Momo/Appa induced Zutara, well I'm afraid you're gonna have to wait. Sorry.

You see that button at the bottom of the page. Yeah, the green one. Now listen very carefully, because what I'm gonna tell you is very important.

Push it. Don't even think about it. Push it. Push it now. Seriously, stop reading this and push it. What are you doing still reading this?

PUSH THE GREEN BUTTON!


	3. Buckle Your Seatbelts

**Buckle Your Seatbelts****  
**  
Most people don't know that Appa and Momo were both hopeless romantics. Both being hopeless romantics, they couldn't help but intervene in the lives of their humans when it came to matters of the heart.

Being animals, neither one was really able to understand the words the humans used. However, as animals, they did understand animalistic _urges. _

Like the blue female's urge to stare long and hard whenever the scarred male did his firebending without a shirt. But she would always look away blushing when he turned her way.

And the scarred one's urge to touch the blue female when she was close to him. He would sometimes reach out to her and get her attention, but just as he would make contact, he would stop and retreat. Maybe he was afraid to touch, despite his obvious urge to. His hand once touched hers and he recoiled like he just patted a viper-weasel.

The two sky creatures would watch the two from a distance, and when it seemed like the two would _finally _succumb to their urges and speak to one another, they would hesitate and run away, pretending like nothing had happened, despite their blushing faces. It was so damn obvious (to everyone except the humans; well, maybe not the blind one) that they urged for each other, they were just too stubborn to admit it. Needless to say, it was very fustrating.

So they decided to do something about it.

They were flying high in the air. Aang and Sokka were at the front, Toph was sitting in the back, gripping the saddle for dear life, and Katara and Zuko were sitting on opposite side of each other, too stubborn to even look at each other.

"Hey guys," Aang said. "Appa's getting tired, so we'll be landing soon."

Everyone, except Toph, got up and began stretching their muscles, sore from the long flight. That was when Momo gave Appa the signal in the form of three loud chirps. After days of waiting patiently for the right circumstances, the right moment had finally presented itself. And the flying mammals were going to take advantage of it.

Hearing the chirps, Appa stopped mid-air. The sudden unexpected stop made everyone lose their balance and falling. Katara, not even thinking, reached out for closest thing near her in an attempt to regain balance. That thing happened to be Zuko.

Pinned under Katara, the two were face to face, their noses only centimeters from one another. Zuko's hands had wrapped themselves around her waist, unconsciously trying to cushion her fall.

Tawny gold met deep blue. A single moment stretched into years where both teenagers stared deep into each others eyes, hosting thoughts and feeling both were too afraid to admit they had. The moment, that single awkward, scary, _perfect_ moment felt like it could have gone on forever and they would lay like that forever. And for that single moment, both thought that would have been okay.

"What are you doing to my sister?" That's when reality caught up to them.

The rest of the day was full of snide remarks (Toph), angry glaring (Sokka), and completely shocked expressions (Aang). And Katara and Zuko were blushing the whole time.

But every once in a while, they would look at each other from across the room, make brief eye contact, and look away blushing, with the ghost of a smile on their lips.

Needless to say, Appa and Momo were very happy with the results.


	4. Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me A Match

Yea, I know it's been a while. This time I don't really have an excuse. I was just being lazy. And I also want to apologize to all my readers following "Deleted Scenes". What can I say? Writer's block sucks. But if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

* * *

**Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match**

Lemur-bats are one of the few creatures in the world that mate for life. Incredibly loyal animals, they often spend their entire lives with only one mate, very rarely choosing to leave their nest for another male or female. Life with another lemur is actually quite peaceful. A warm body to keep away the cold on those especially frigid nights. Another lemur to help find food and water. And you never have to worry about getting bored, because lemurs are nothing if not mischievous. Especially in two's.

No. Life with a nest mate is pretty good. It's the courting that's the problem.

You see, when a male lemur feels especially attracted to a member of the opposite sex, they begin the courting ritual. And this is where the trouble begins. Courtship involves the male presenting the female a gift. The male with the best gift gets the girl. Sounds pretty simple, right? Wrong.

You see, female lemurs are very particular creatures. They won't just give their hearts and their lives to the first male that gives them a shiny rock. A male could try for weeks trying to find the perfect gift, and still lose out in the end. Gifts can be presented in almost any form. Anything and everything from a large piece of fruit to a stolen necklace could be a potential courting gift. Overall, it's an incredibly exhausting and strenuous experience for the male.

But secretly, the gift is only half of what determines a male's worthiness. Female lemurs don't just want a male that can lavish them with pretty bobbles. They want a male that will fight for them. A male that will never stop searching for that one thing, that one perfect thing that will finally maker her his. Determination and heart are what females really want.

And Momo, better than anyone, knew that Aang had more heart in his little finger than most people had in their whole bodies.

And it was this fact alone that convinced the tiny mammal that he had to help his favorite human. Because it was so obvious-to him, at least-that he was having trouble courting the girl he wanted. Why else would he be spending so much time with the dirt-smelling two-legger?

Whenever they were around each other, they would talk and smile. Often spending hours together, making jokes, each one would laugh harder than anyone at the other's antics. To an outsider, this might just seem like two close friends having fun. But Momo was smarter than the average lemur. I mean, come on! Why else would he get that goofy grin on his face when he was around her? It was _so_ obvious that he was into her!

Well, obvious to everyone but Appa.

_He always has that goofy grin on. It's who he is. _

_Yea, but it's even goofier when he's around _her_! How can you not see that?_

_I can't see what isn't there. _

_Bah! You're just not as insightful as me._

_Perhaps not, but I still don't think it's a good idea to get involved in his courting. If it is a courting..._

_Of course it's a courting! And he needs our help! If he wants to make her his nest mate, he's gonna need us to guide him!_

_Has it ever occurred to you that maybe he doesn't need our help? If he does want her, then their relationship will grow in time. _

_Yea, but another male can come and take her away by then! _

_You would know by experience, wouldn't you?_

_Shut up! This isn't about me! This is about the little-male and the dirty two-legger. _

_Two-leggers are very strange creatures. So very...awkward. If you get involved, you could make things worse. _

_Ah, what do you know? I'll help his courting. You'll see. _

_Fine, just don't ask me to get involved. _

And so Momo resolved himself to help Aang get his girl.

Following the customs of courtship that Momo had known his entire life, he gave Aang several objects that he wanted the airbender to present as gifts to the blind female. Unfortunately, the general meaning of Momo's instructions got lost in translation. And "by lost in translation", I mean Aang had no idea what the lemur was chirping so insistently about.

Momo's first attempt at helping Aang involved a large, red piece of fruit that the lemur had found growing on a nearby tree. Momo plucked it and immediately brought it to the airbender. When Aang took the fruit, he just kind of stared at Momo oddly. Momo had never brought him food before. In fact, the tiny creature was kind of stingy. But he took it nevertheless, and cut it several pieces.

"Hey Toph, you want a piece of fruit?"

When the earthbender threw a piece into her mouth, Momo was sure that she had accepted his gift of courtship. Why else would she take it?

_That was easier than I thought..._

But not even thirty seconds later, Toph was on the floor gasping for breath while a crimson rash spread across her face. It turns out she's allergic to mysterious red fruit. When Toph felt better the next day, she earthbent Aang into a thorny bush.

_Okay, that didn't work..._

Maybe he was going about this all wrong. The best gift would be something the female covets. Maybe something that she already has a lot of? That night, Momo snuck into Toph's personal bag. With a total disregard to order or privacy, the lemur tossed everything on the floor, hoping to find something that would give the tiny mammal some insight into her personal tastes. But then he heard footsteps. Momo panicked and ran, not even caring that there was an article of clothing stuck to his large ears.

The first person that he ran into just happened to be Aang. Momo climbed onto his shoulders, trying to act nonchalant. The lemur still hadn't noticed that something was hanging off his head.

"Hey, Momo. What do you have here?" Aang pulled it off his head and began to examine the strange clothes.

"Hey, whose been going through my stuff?" Toph screamed from down the hall. When Toph walked into the room, she saw -well, not so much saw as sensed- a blushing Aang holding a pair of girl's undergarments. The girl that had just walked into the room, to be exact.

"I can explain!"

He never got the chance to because he was suddenly launched through the wall into the next room, only to land in a patch of quicksand that wasn't there a moment ago. He was immediately buried up to his nose.

"Pervert" was the only thing Toph mumbled as she left the room.

_So, my small friend, who's helping the little-one going along?_

_Terrible. Everything I try just ends up with him getting hurt. _

_Have you tried flowers? Don't females enjoy those?_

_There was a swarm of scorpion-bees in them. They both got stung…a lot…_

_What about one of those fluffy dolls these human females seem to be so fond of? Surely that would work?_

_He accidentally set it on fire and burned himself._

_Hmm...maybe you should stop before you get someone killed._

_Shut up! I still have one more plan! And if this doesn't work, nothing will!_

_Oh, I've gotta see this. _

And so, with Appa and Momo watching from the corner, Aang approached Toph holding a stone Momo had found earlier that evening. A smooth and shiny emerald, it reflected the sunlight beautifully, splashing the surrounding walls with light green shadows. Aang even had the foresight to wrap a piece of twine around it; a handsome necklace that he had made himself. Momo was convinced that _this_ was the perfect courting gift. And if she rejected him, well, she didn't deserve such a dedicated two-legger.

Being animals, the sky creatures had a difficult time understanding the two benders. But she hasn't thrown a rock at him so far, and that had to be a good sign, right?

"Why are you doing this, Aang? You've never given me something before. Usually you save your presents for Katara."

He flushed "I know. I just thought you might like it. It reminds me of you."

She didn't say anything for a moment.

"What does it look like?"

"Well, it's smooth and shiny. And it's a really pretty shade of dark green."

"You…think it's pretty?"

"Yeah, and when you hold it up to the light, like this, the whole room turns green."

"And it reminds you of me?"

"Sure. And it's a hard rock to find. I looked all day for another one and couldn't find anything like it."

She reached out and took the stone from Aang, hoping that he wouldn't be able to see her blushing cheeks. "Thank you, Aang." It hung from her neck beautifully, and for a seemingly endless moment, Aang and Toph just stared at each other, smiling.

Momo turned to Appa with a smug grin on his face.

_Ha! I told you I could do it!_

_All right, all right. You did it. But it took you nearly two weeks. _

_Well, let's see you do better!_

Appa just stood there for a moment before he turned around, his back facing the two still smiling benders. For a second, Momo's grin got even bigger, thinking that his friend had backed down from the challenge. But that grin went away the moment Appa raised his large, flat tale.

Only putting a little bit of force into the flap, Appa aimed a large gust of wind at Toph and Aang. The result was a human pile up with Toph sprawled on top of Aang, their faces only centimeters apart. Taken by surprise, they just stayed in that position, trying to comprehend the position they were in. Their faces were practically burning, they were so red.

After a second, the pre-teens leaped away from each other. Their backs to each other, they wore identical embarrassed and flushed expressions.

"I gotta go," Aang said loudly.

"Yea, me too," said Toph at the same second.

They practically _ran_.

Momo just stared at the whole thing with an open mouth and bulging mouth. He turned to friend, shocked beyond words.

_How did…and you…nearly two weeks! And you did it in thirty seconds!_

_Just call me Match Maker Appa. _

* * *

A/N:

This was so much fun to write.

This is always how I imagined Appa and Momo would be if they were human.

Momo is a caring friend, but a born trouble maker always getting involved and making mountains out of molehills. His heart's in the right place, but he tends to make things works. Intelligent and observant, howeve, he doesn't always have a lot of sense. While Appa is wise enough when to let things just take their course. But when he does get involved, he gets the job done. That isn't to say that Momo is stupid or that Appa is smarter, they just have different ways of doing things.

I don't know why, but I felt like putting a little bit of advice for the guys at the beginning. If you get it, then good for you. If you don't, then you're not as smart as a lemur-bat. Sorry.

On an unrelated point, my sister is HUGE! I swear, my prego sister is bigger than ever. And she's due any day now! So we're all kinda just keeping a close eye on her, just in case she suddenly pops. I am so excited to meet little Dean/Zoltan. Zoltan's gonna be his unofficial name. My entire family's agreed. Well, everyone except my sister.

And in the spirit of Halloween and unborn-baby-excitedness, I am making a personal promise to all my readers. Whoever reviews first after my nephew is born, the next chapter will be dedicated to you! Hell, you can even tell me what you want it to be about! So I guess you'll just have to keep reviewing and hope that you got it. Good luck!


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